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SIG KILO 2000 Review

I have an aversion to range finders… I feel like its cheating. Yes I know they are extremely useful and allow you to reduce those ever important variables down when it comes to making that first round hit. Don’t get me wrong.. I am no stranger to range finders, I have had many models over the years. I just never seem to hang onto them. Having recently moved on a Zeiss unit I found myself looking for something else to fill that pouch on my belt.

Enter the Sig Kilo from Sig optics…. I had seen this little gem bandied around on the web stateside and felt there was no smoke without fire as far as what was being said. Exceptional performance coupled with good value for money is usually a winner. I decided to bite the bullet (excuse the pun) and go for one. I was most impressed by the size of the unit. It always looked as big as a Leica in the photos if not bigger. However the unit is really compact and lightweight. The Sig weighs in at a mere 215g and is not much bigger than your Iphone. The frame is constructed from Magnesium which retains strength but keeps the whole unit light. Often something so light can give a flimsy feel. The design and materials used in the Kilo do not make it feel like it will smash to pieces if you drop it. The matte finish appears to be of good quality and the rubber grips are perfectly positioned and work well even with wet hands.

When my unit arrived it was set up in yards but within a minute or so I had it switched over to metres. The menu is very straight forward and the manual explains the functionality very plainly. You can adjust the settings by holding down the mode button then using the range button to select the modes as you cycle down through them. This can all be done one handed and this is a testament to the design. Don’t worry about putting the unit into configuration mode by accident; you need to hold down the mode button for several seconds before it engages to config. Lets be honest there aren’t many guys out there who will sit and read the manual for two hours. Most want to rip open the pack and head for the hills with it and the ease of use and clarity of the manual will get you ready to rock very quickly. It was a couple of days before I got to test the Sig further than from the garden. The 7x magnification range is ample even at the greater distances. I found the 25mm objective to be good enough also. The reticle is a very straight forward red circle with the data showing up below it. A feature I really liked is the auto dimming function. A sensor in the unit picks up ambient light and adjusts the reticle brightness between a range of 20 settings. I walked in and out of the house to test this and the change happens almost instantaneously. You can also easily adjust the brightness manually.

So lets get to the important stuff… how does it perform? First go I was able to lase the side of bungalow style house at 1804m , this was with my elbows planted on a wall in a v shape, quite steady but still allowing for a little bit of muscle movement from the elbows to my fingers. In order to really stretch this thing out I decided to take it out on a mountain with me. From a high point I could point and lase all around me. Anything up to 1200m as this stage was too easy. I managed to get a transit connect van at 2194m. To say I was impressed is an understatement. Deer and animal size targets are ranged with ease out to around 600m from a standing position. Anything of smaller size at further distances required a little more stability like a good prone position or resting on something. The unit performs very well clamped into a tripod set up.

Lasing a target is very simple with the SIG. If you don’t get a number on the readout within a second then its not getting you a distance. The SIG also features Hyper Scan mode. Simply put you hold down the button as you scan for targets and the ranges are updated 4 times a second… impressive. I found this handy for very small targets which can be more difficult to get a range on.

Something else that I found can be poor with rangefinders over the years is glass quality. Unless you are running a Zeiss or Swarovski then you can expect the glass to not be mind blowing. Again the SIG performed above expectations. I found the glass clarity to be excellent in this unit for what it is and better than some of the more common high end units around.

In conclusion this is without doubt one of the best value for money range finders out there, I am really very impressed with it and it should bring the standard of its competitors up. Since I started this review SIG Optics have released the SIG Kilo 2200 MR which has even more features and upgrades to the 2000. (a review will follow on this one). However there are still plenty of 2000s around for decent money should you not want to wait for a 2200.

Here is a full spec list of the KILO 2000 from SIG Optics.

Eye relief:15mm

Field of view:34.6 ft at 100 yards
Maximum range on reflective targets:3400 yards